Virus
by Taeke Kaeta
Summary: Taeke Shoguya, an average Japanese student, but on the first day of his freshman year, something happened that changed his life.
1. Freshman Year

My own story based on the online game, S4 League. Disclaimers? I don't own the name, but I do own the story.

**Tokyo, Shoguya residence, April 5****th**** 2020 **

It was Sunday, the sun was shining, but the clouds gave a perfect shade over the town. Tomorrow's the first day of school, and also the start of my freshman year… My name is Taeke Shoguya, I'm fifteen years old. Now I'm just wasting the few hours of freedom I have left. I was just sitting on my desk staring out the window while listening to my radio.

_… five casualties and thirty hospitalized. The police department has yet to find the one's responsible for the sudden collapse of the monorail tracks. Shitsu Saionji, director of the monorail security claims…_

There have been a lot of these accidents lately. Some say its terrorists; others say it was just because the buildings were poorly constructed. I don't really want to stick my head into it. The less I'm involved in it; the smaller the chances are I'll end up in a hospital or coffin.

"Taeke? I'm coming in," someone said as they entered my room. It was my sister.

"The point of announcing an entrance is to get permission from whoever's inside you know. If you just barge in like that, it defeats the purpose."

"Whatever," she said as she lays down on my bed "you gotta loosen up, Tae," Tokiko Shoguya, sixteen years old. She took a manga off my shelf and started reading it. "Don't you have homework?" she asked.

"Not really, since we're moving up from middle school, they probably went easy on us this year.

"Lucky bastards; I got tons of homework. Enjoy it while it lasts; next year, things will be harder for you," I sighed. I don't mind her hanging out in my room, but if this is all she has to say, she might as well stay out.

"Things around the city have been crazy, huh, all those incidents," she said.

"Talk about it too much it might happen to you."

"Aw, don't say that! Don't tell me you're actually hoping for that to happen!" that's one of the last things I want. Sure she gets on my nerves now and then, but she's still family and… ahem…. I love her. No way I'll say that out loud though.

"*pouts* you're so gloomy," like I care.

"Tokiko! Taeke! Dinner's ready!" I heard mom say from downstairs. Tokiko didn't even bother putting the manga she was reading back on the shelf, she just left it on my bed.

"If you don't hurry I'm gonna eat all the good parts!" she said as she ran out of the room. We're having hotpot today. I better hurry before she takes all the shrimp. I took the manga and put it back on the shelf. I caught a glance of one of my new high school textbooks before I left the room. It was like 4 cm thick!

"I'm so not looking forward to tomorrow."

**Teshou High School, class 1-B April 6****th**** 2020**

I can't believe I got here so fast! Last night was like a blur, I can't even remember dinner! I hope I managed to get some shrimp though…

"Alright, guys! I hope you had a good holiday cuz, starting from today, it'll be like an introduction for hell!" said our new homeroom teacher, Ms. Kano. If she was giving us pep talk, then that might be the worst ever. I wouldn't be surprised if some of my classmates jump out of the window.

"Right! Let's divide up the classroom responsibilities! Who wants to be class representative?"

"I'll do that, sensei," someone said as they raised their hand. It was a girl. I never met her before, so I have nothing to say about that.

"So… Misaki Kouta is our class representative," Misaki Kouta? I've heard of her from the other students. Her family is supposedly rich and she's a straight A student. Now that I think about it, she's also kinda cute.

"…and, who wants to be medical room representative?" I lost interest in this really quickly. I don't want to have any of these responsibilities. Having people completely depend on me is a real drag…

The class continues.

"Hey, Tae-tae…" I heard as someone poked my back. Only one person ever calls me that ridiculous name.

"What is it, Yuki..?" I responded without looking back.

"Isn't it great? We're in the same class again!" she whispered. Yeah, great… Yuki Sanjo, sixteen, she had her birthday during spring break. I remember it clearly.

_"Hey, Yuki. Happy birthday," I said as I handed her the latest Pom-bomb CD._

_ "Tae-tae! Thanks a bunch!" she screamed as she wrapped her arms around me and shook me in the air. "How've you been! Why didn't you stay in touch! How'd you get this CD, it's not even released yet!"_

_ "Fine… *gasp*… phone broke… *squeal*… I know someone… *gag*"_

She's way stronger than she looks. We've been friends since we were five. She lived down the street. She, Tokiko, and I used to play together a lot, but we moved to another neighbourhood cuz we found out someone died in that house a few years ago and my parents are very superstitious.

"Hey, let's get together during lunch, whatdya say?"

"Sure, sure…"

**Teshou High School, rooftop, lunchtime**

"Wow! Your lunch is great! Did your mom make this?"

"Nah, I did."

"That's amazing!" I gotta admit, it's nice up here. You could see the entire town from up here. I still wish Yuki would quit eating my lunch, but at least she let me eat hers too. We've been doing this ever since 8th grade.

"Hey, what do you think about the incidents lately? Pretty crazy huh?" why do people like to talk about this so much? I would like to tell her what I told sis, but she seems happy and I didn't have the heart to ruin that.

"Yeah, I guess," if I get involved in one of those incidents, I'll blame her.

Suddenly, there was a slight tremble.

"Cool! Was that an earthquake! Haha! I felt an earthquake!" why would she be happy about that?

"Hey, Taeke."

"Hm?" she almost never calls me by my real name.

"Be careful, alright? I would hate it if you got into one of those incidents…" what's with her all of a sudden?

"Uh… yeah sure,"

"Good," well that was weird.

A few minutes later, we heard a commotion. It was coming from in front of the school. When we went to check, we saw students, teachers, and staff running from the schoolyard and out of to the streets. What's going on?

"Wow… what do you think happened?" Yuki asked.

"I don't know… looks like the alarm went off. How come we didn't hear it?"

"I heard that the alarm can't be heard from here."

"How come?"

"Well, right below us are the music rooms. They lined the floors and walls with soundproof carpets, for obvious reasons. Most of the sound probably got drained out through that floor."

"But shouldn't there be an alarm here?"

"*pouts* Well, I wouldn't know about that. I just started out in this school too, remember?" pouting at a time like this? I think Tokiko was a bad influence on her.

"Well, whatever. Let's get out of here."

"I'll go get our lunchboxes."

**Tenshou High School, music floor**

Did they really have to line the ENTIRE floor with soundproof carpet! And where are the alarms one this floor? I hope they weren't stupid enough to not install alarms on this floor just so they won't disturb the music classes.

"We gotta hurry before whatever reason for them setting off the alarm reaches us!" I said as I pulled Yuki's arm while running towards the stairs.

"I hope it isn't a fire…" I was surprised. I never heard her without her usual energetic tone. It was kinda creepy.

"Uhm… tell you what. I'll treat you to ice cream after school's over, to celebrate our freshman year. What do you say?" what the? Where did that come from?

"Uh… o-okay! You promise, right!" I nodded. I'm not sure why I did that, but it was relieving to hear her usual voice again.

We were almost to the stairs when I heard someone say something behind us.

"Huh, there's still some left?" I looked back, and saw Yuki look back. But then I turned my attention to the guy in front of us. I went a little pale. He wore some kind of suit; it was a white long sleeved shirt with a grey striped vest and a tie. The sleeves had some kind of ribbons tied around it. The pants where striped too. It was like a suit, only it was more… anime-ish? He also had a giant metallic glove on his left arm and a short sword in his right.

"Well… since you saw me, I guess I have to kill you, sorry," I went even more pale. Before I could react, that giant glove and his sword exploded like shattering glass and the pieces joined together and formed a heavy looking sword. He charged at the closest one of us, which happened to be Yuki. I pushed her aside as fast as I could. He hacked towards me with his sword with one hand as if it's as light as a stick. I closed my eyes.

"Huh?" I heard him say. I-I'm still alive? I slowly opened my eyes. I saw the sharp blade of the sword just 10 cm from my face, but it looks like I managed to stop it by clapping my hands onto the flat side of the sword. How did I do that?

"Well well… you're strong, aren't you?" He stepped back, I relaxed myself.

"Yuki, stay back," I whispered to her, but I doubt our unknown assailant didn't hear me.

"O-okay…" she ran towards the stairs and went down.

"That's no use, y'know. I'll just finish you quickly and go after her."

"Hurgh…." He's right, no way I can win without any weapons. I just need to hold him off long enough for Yuki to get out of the building.

"Heh… I hope you had a satisfying life!" he charged at me with his sword again. The air around him turned blue and moved according to his charging at me, kinda like a meteor. I sidestepped, but he stomped down left foot in front of him and he slid to a stop, right in front of me. He swung his sword at me, but I ducked and jabbed as hard as I could into his stomach. He coughed out blood.

"Heh… not bad…" he dropped to the floor, face first. I can't believe I did that. I better go make sure Yuki is safe… or maybe I should stay here and make sure he doesn't go after her… before I could make the decision, I saw someone come up the stairs. It was Yuki.

"What the hell are you doing here!" I shouted.

"Uhm… I was worried about you, so I…"

"Came back! That was dangerous! He could've noticed you and attack you!"

"Well, I can't help it if I was worried about you okay!" grr… this is no time for fighting amongst ourselves. We gotta join the others outside.

"We'll talk about this later! Let's go!" She pouted again. Damn that's annoying. I ran down the stairs, but halfway, I stopped. I guess I should be glad she worried about me…

"Thanks for worrying about me, but as you can see; I'm fine," I said. I didn't look back to see how she reacted, but it didn't matter anyway. I got the guilt out of my system, so I guess that's that.

"How touching…" I went pale. That sounded like…

"I guess… grr… it's better if you die beside your girlfriend…" I looked back, he was up! He's clutching his stomach though, good to know I have a good right hook, but he was holding a gun this time. I could see his trigger finger move. I grabbed Yuki's arm and pulled her aside again. I could hear the bullet jump off the floor; he missed!

"Yuki, RUN!" I pulled her arm as I ran downstairs.

"You can't run from me forever!"

**Teshou High School, Lobby**

"We're almost outside!" I yelled as we got closer to the exit. What a way to start out the new school year! I just want to sleep the rest of the day off.

"Finally! I thought we were never gonna make it," she commented. I gotta agree with her. That guy had a gun; he just needed us in his line of sight and we're done for. We're gonna talk about this for months… but then again, I'd rather forget today, save me some trauma.

"I guess we can relax now-" I was disturbed by the difficulty of pulling Yuki's arm. "Yuki, c'mon, let's go."

"I-I can't move…" what? I looked back. She stood still. I looked at her feet, I saw small chains float around her feet.

"What the…"

"I told you; you can't run from me," I looked towards the staircase. He caught up to us! Crap… Yuki can't move and he has a gun. He raised his arm.

"Time to die, little girl…" NO! My body reacted. My right leg moved, his inserted his finger into the trigger guard. I stepped in front of Yuki, his finger moved back towards the trigger. I planted my feet into a strong stance, the trigger was being pushed back. I raised my arms and closed my eyes, I heard a gunshot.

Not too much into the S4 part; this is just the introduction. Hope it was good, chapter 2 underway!


	2. The League

I don't own blablabla, you know what I mean.

**Teshou High School, Lobby**

I stood where I was, too scared to even try and feel something. I was right in front of him, there's no way I'm still alive. They say when you're about to die your entire life flashes before your eyes. Apparently that wasn't a load of crap like most rumours. I saw what looked like a recap of my life flash before me. To be honest, it wasn't even the least bit satisfying. I didn't do anything useful ever since I was born. Was I going to die without fulfilling anything? I might as well open my eyes and receive Judgement.

Is what I thought until I noticed something.

"I-I'm breathing!" apparently I'm still alive. What a miracle! I looked behind me and it looks like Yuki was okay. There was someone else behind me though. It was Misaki Kouta! I was shocked, not to see her, but to see what she was holding, and what she was wearing. She was wearing something that looked like biker armour for girls, plus it was a little revealing so I tried to turn my attention to something, that wasn't hard, considering she was considering she was holding a long blue gun.

"K-kouta! What're you doing here!"

"Call me Misaki, I hate it when people call me that," she said bluntly "As for what I'm doing here, look for yourself," she lowered her weapon and nodded towards the stairs. I turned my head to find my unknown assailant unconscious, but there was also some kind of green aura that was emanating or escaping from his body like steam. Did Misaki do that? I turned to her.

"C'mon, I gotta get you two outside," she said. I happily obliged.

**Teshou High School, Courtyard**

When we were outside we were greeted by a male student.

"Misaki-san, I trust the target has been digitalized?"

"Yes, his data is deconstructing. Save him,"

"Of course," after that the male student went into the building. For obvious reasons, I asked.

"Who was that?"

"Kenji Daisuke, he's a senior, but that isn't important. Sanjo,"

"Yes?" Yuki answered.

"Excuse me," before she could ask what she meant, Misaki grabbed he face and after five seconds Yuki fainted. I was outraged.

"What did you do!"

"I erased her memory, or, more precisely, transferred it into a disk."

"Why?"

"Because she's seen what that man could do. All information concerning espers must be erased from civilian minds," I didn't understand what she said, but I understood what she meant.

"So, that means you're going to do the same to me?"

"Well, that depends," depends? Depends on what? And why didn't it "depend" on anything for Yuki? I would've asked but Misaki just walked away.

"Hey, wait!" I chased after her. I thought she was heading towards streets, but she was actually walking towards the statue in the middle of the courtyard. She stopped in front of the statue pedestal and a door slid open. Of course, I was awe struck.

"Wha..?"

"You coming?" she said.

"What about Yuki?"

"Kenji will attend to her, don't worry," but I was worried.

"You sure she'll be alright?"

"Hmhm…" she chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"You acted the exact same way last night," what the hell is she talking about?

"Last night? What're you talking about?"

"Come with me and you'll find out," classic. Leave me in suspense and use that as hassle me into doing what she wants. Well… what's the harm? If I get into any danger, I'll just fight my way out; just like with that guy.

"Fine."

**Underground Teshou High School**

That chamber was an elevator, and it brought us into some kind of underground lair. I haven't heard the phrase "underground lair" ever since Batman, and that was back when I was five.

The "underground lair" was nothing like Batman's. This place was a lot more high-tech. The room we were in was kinda cramped. I guessed this was where all the elevators connect.

"Come with me," Misaki ordered. She walked towards a closed doorway and the door suddenly slid open. I thought it was like the sliding doors you see in superstores, so I walking towards another doorway, expecting it to open as I walk towards it, but, instead, I hit the ever-closed door right on the nose.

"Ow!" I said with a nasal accent.

"I told you to follow me," she barked. Well that hurt, and that hit irritated my sinuses. I started to sneeze.

"We have some tissues where we're going, c'mon, hurry up," does she ever stop barking orders. That cute face started to look like an irritating mother, and one thing I learned during my life is to listen to an irritating mother, unless I want bruises that last for two months.

We walked for about five minutes until we came into a room with a techy-lookin' desk in front of us. Behind the desk was a woman in a teacher's uniform.

"So this is the guy you were talkin' about?" she blurted out.

"Yes, ma'am; this is Taeke Shoguya, freshmen year class B," the teacher's eyebrows jumped.

"Freshmen… and he wasn't a member of the league during middle school?"

"No, ma'am."

"Then, why is he here?"

"He has potential," so it was potential that saved my memory from being erased? I would've recommended Yuki if it meant her intact memory.

"Potential?" she stood up and walked towards me. She glared at me while walking around me. She examined me head to toe. Her doing that is kinda disturbing; I need personal space too.

"He's not buff, but then again he doesn't look like a wimp either," I'll take that as a compliment. "Why do you think he has 'potential'?"

"On last night's mission, task code 050420-CY-20, he showed compassion in protecting his family," what? Again, what is she talking about!

"Yeah, about that…" before I could finish, the teacher cut me off.

"Yeah yeah, you wanna know what happened last night, right? Well that'll hafta wait. First thing's first, do you wanna join us or not?"

"Well, before I would agree to anything, I gotta know what I'm agreeing to," my eyes crossed a little.

"Smart boy. Fine; I'll tell you," she walked back behind her desk and pressed a button, the floor in front of the desk and popped out two cosy-looking chairs.

"You might wanna sit down; this'll be a long explanation, you too, Kouta," I noticed Misaki flinch.

"What about school?" I questioned.

"Hah! I never heard of a student concerned that he might NOT go to school before! Don't worry about that, Shoguya; school will probably be out early due to what happened," let's get one thing straight, I'm not concerned that I WON'T be going to school, I'm worried about my permanent record. I like to be squeaky clean when it comes to my future, and me ditching school might stain my chances for a good college.

Misaki and I took a seat in front of the teacher, who still hasn't introduced herself. My nose flinched. I almost forgot.

"Do you have any tissues?" I asked her.

"Yeah sure," she grabbed a box of tissues from beside her and handed them to me "Here."

"Thanks."

She reclined in her chair and folded her arms as I blew my nose.

"We're called the S4 League, S4 being an acronym for Stylish eSper Shooting Sports," I was expecting something a lot more serious, that sounded a lot like a name for a game, "Yes I know, actually it IS a name for a game," is this woman psychic? "No, I'm not psychic," I give up.

"Maybe five years ago, a new sport was invented in Korea, that sport was S4 League. It was practically just a shooter game in real life, you just have to kill as much as possible. There were different kinds of games in this sport, but getting to that isn't important. What's important is that since the game requires people to actually shoot each other and dodging bullets isn't something everyone can do, they made a special device that amplifies the body's abilities. This device's official name was forgotten, so now we just call it the S4 Badge. There are other badges, but I can't tell you what they are until you join us," well this is a lot to take in. I guess she could tell I needed to process the info she just gave me, since she paused too.

"Moving on… the weapons used in S4 are special; they only work in the hands of someone who wear's an S2 Badge, that's another one of those badges by the way, plus they overpower normal weapons. Of course the guys who invented the sport knew the dangers of the weapons, that's why they also made a failsafe; the weapons can't harm anyone who isn't wearing any of the League Badges, but somehow a gang of S-O-Bs mobbed the League's main HQ and took most badges and weapons, not forgetting to kill the scientists of the League's production and all their research notes. They also found out a way to remove the weapons' failsafe."

"Shouldn't a place like that be heavily guarded?" I interrupted. I could tell that she hated to be cut off.

"Well yes, it was. But they were an overwhelming number. Most of them were killed, but all of the guards were taken down with them," what a relentless attack.

"Anyway," she continued "we needed a way to fight them, and the only way to harm someone wearing a badge was to use S4 weapons. Since the scientists were killed, we needed to make weapons from scratch. We gathered a bunch of new scientists to work on it, but of course it was hard, but it wasn't as hard as before, since there were two things that could be left out. One, it didn't need to be safe for badge users, and two, they didn't need to be safe for non-badge users either."

"But isn't that dangerous?" I interrupted again. I could see she was starting to steam up. I pretended to blow my nose to cover up my face.

"Of course it's dangerous, but we can't solve all problems. Injuring the public is better than doing nothing while they get killed. There were also more problems for us though. Since the original blueprints were destroyed, there were some devices too complicated to build within the required time, like the S4 Badge, the badge that amplifies our abilities. We're outnumbered and outmatched. That's why we even stooped to recruiting students."

"What about the army?" I questioned. Good thing I asked after she was done talking, cuz I don't think she can take another interruption. She shook her head.

"We certainly can't involve the army in this; that would cause a public panic. We even needed to erase the memories of everyone who knew about the League before the attack. Think about it, a whole lot of brutes out there with weapons that make the army's look like dart guns, not to mention the Badges they have in their hands," she's right. This problem looks way big.

"So all those incidents…?"

"Yeah, those brutes have finally reached Japan. We have no idea what their motives are though, but since all we know about them is that they're a bunch of hoodlums, we suspect they're attacks were just random acts of terrorism, but we still try to find an alternate motive," this is a lot to take in. So if I join I this S4 League, it'll be like joining the army, but…

"You still haven't told me about last night," she suddenly showed a smug grin.

"If you wanna find out about that, you hafta join us," of course… that trick again. There's no way I can make this decision in one day. I'm going to have to think about it.

"I need to think about it."

"Fine with me, but you have very delicate info that would be disastrous if leaked. We're going to hafta assign a few spies to keep an eye on ya."

"Okay,"

"Let's go Shoguya, I'm sure you want to get home," Misaki suggested. She's right, I'm extremely tired, mostly because of this story.

" Yeah…" I stood up and followed Misaki out of the room. I was halfway out of the door when I remembered something.

"Wait," with that Misaki quickly put her hand on the doorway "You're a teacher here, right?"

"Yeah, what of it?" she said with a raised eyebrow.

"I haven't gotten your name," she stood up and out one hand on the table and the other on her hips.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten about me," what? I took a closer look at her face. She does ring a bell, but I'm not really good with faces, at least with people I just met.

"Sorry, I don't remember," I said bluntly. I could tell she was a little heartbroken.

"I can't believe my own student doesn't even remember me… get outta here!" she shouted as she threw a book at me. I stepped back and Misaki release her grip on the doorway. The door closed, but it was a second too late; the book already hit my face.

"Ow…" the book fell off my face and into my hands.

"You can return that book tomorrow; I don't think she wants to see you right now."

"I can tell…" I turned around and Misaki lead me back into the elevator room. The door slid open and she lead me into an elevator.

"Who is she anyway?" I asked her as she pressed the button.

"Ms. Kano, our homeroom teacher,"

"Wha..!" the elevator started moving.

**Shoguya Residence, Kitchen, April 7****th**** 2020, morning **

Because of the incident yesterday, they decided to close down the school for a few days due to damage. Apparently those guys completely blew of the roof to the study hall, broke down doors to most classrooms, made some new doorways if you know what I mean, and some other stuff. Good thing Yuki and I were on the roof.

"Morning, Tae," I heard my sister say from the living room.

"Morning,"

"Where're Mom and Dad? Oh, and what's for breakfast?" she asked as she sit down on the couch and turned on the TV. Did I forget to mention that I'm the cook around here? Well, I am. Dad has his work, Mom has a bad arm, and Tokiko… she can't even tell the difference between egg and eggplant.

"Dad left for work early, Mom is still sleeping, fried rice,"

"With chicken?"

"Yeah sure,"

"Aaawesome!" I was chopping up vegetables at this point. I stopped for a second to ask her something.

"Hey, Tokiko."

"Hm?"

"Do you remember anything about the night before last?" she put her finger on her chin and looks into the ceiling.

"Now that you mention it… no, I don't," she doesn't remember anything either… she must've noticed I stopped cooking.

"Why?" it was weird to hear her say this because it had a concerned feeling in it, which I almost never see in anything she says.

"Nothing, I was just wondering," I continued to chop up what I needed and throwing it into the frying pan. At least one good thing came out of all this. I flipped around the rice in the pan while forming a small grin. She didn't get any shrimp either.


	3. Thinking

*yaaaaaawn* *sniffle* Next chapter… *blows nose*

**Shoguya Residence, Taeke's Room, April 8****th**** 2020**

I was crouching low on my desk and writing down notes from my textbook. It was morning. If you're wondering why I'm not in school right now, because of the incident two days ago, the school decided to give the students time to recover from the shock, as well as for them to fix some parts of the school.

Sure they said we didn't have to go to school, but I'm cramming anyway. There was only one thing that supported my reputation in school, and that's my grades. I usually get 90s on tests, without that I would be seen as the most useless guy in school. I don't talk to people I'm not familiar with so much; Yuki is practically the only person I spend time with.

I examined my textbook and found a kanji character I wasn't familiar with. Just when I was going to look it up, Tokiko barges in.

"Hey, bro! Whatsup?" she says as she jumps onto my bed.

"Oh, Tokiko, perfect timing; do you know what this character is?" I handed her the textbook and pointed at the character.

"Hmm… that's the kanji for 'language', isn't it?" I was kinda surprised. That's one of the characters that they teach in grade school. How could I forget that one?

"Really?" I examined the character closer. She was right. I guess my forgetful side is showing "Oh, you're right, thanks, sis."

"How could you forget such a simple character?" she says as she rolls over and lies on her back.

"You know me; I'm a little forgetful,"

"Yeah, that's your cute side," I jumped at in my sit at that comment. I also couldn't help but blush with embarrassment. I think Tokiko noticed.

"Ohohoho….pushed your buttons, did I?" she said with a cat smile.

"Whatever…" I turned back to my desk.

Speaking of my forgetful side, I just remembered I forgot something else; the book that Ms. Kano threw at me the day of the incident. Misaki said that I should return the day after, but I guess she didn't know about the school closing down. I was planning on reading it. I took it out of my bag and took some time looking at the cover. "S4 League Regulations"… sounds like a rule book. I opened it and looked at the table of contents. Introduction, Basic Rules, equipment… sounds normal, until… Death Match Mode, Touch Down Mode, Captain Mode… what the? This looks more like a rule book for a game instead of an underground organization.

"Whatcha have there?" Tokiko said, looking up from her – or rather, my – manga.

"Uhh… a guide book for a new game I got," I didn't even have to lie 100% to cover this one up.

"Oh? What's it called?" this is a little harder… making up names isn't really what I'm good at. Well… since she doesn't now about the league, I guess telling her the real name wouldn't be much harm.

"S fo…" before I finished I just remembered something. Didn't Ms. Kano say that she was going to assign spies to keep an eye on me? I wonder if even saying the league's name would be a violation. I felt a sudden chill down my spine… I can't risk it…

"S fo… Es fo… Esfola… rio! Esfolario! It's like an action RPG," I said quickly. Did she buy it?

"Oh, ok," she said nonchalantly, and then she went back to the manga. Phew, that was close. Back to the book; the content here really does sound like it's for a game. Maybe it was a rulebook from back when it was still a sport. I started reading it from Basic Rules. If I were to join the league, I want to know what it was before it became an underground organization fighting for public peace, and if I don't join… they're going to erase my memory anyway, so if I read it, the situation will go fine either way.

A few hours passed by.

"Hey, Taeke," I heard Tokiko say behind me.

"Yeah?"

"When are we going back to school?"

"I don't really know. They told us to stand by till further notice."

"I see…" why does she want to know anyway? "In that case," she closed the manga and stood up "You wanna go out?"

"Hah!" that was sudden! "W-w-why…?"

"Why not, it's not like either of us have anything better to do. I'll even call up Yuki and ask her to join, whadaya say?" well… it's true that I have nothing else to do… *sigh* what the hell, I'll give it a try.

"Sure,"

"Cool, I'll go take a shower and then call Yuki. You tell Mom and Dad that we're going out."

"Wait," I stopped her before she left the room "Do you even have Yuki's number?"

"Of course I do. We kept her homephone number after we moved, remember?" oh yeah, I do remember that. I never used her homephone number ever since we both got cellphones though.

"Right, I'll go take a shower now. No peeking~!"

"Why would I even try!"

"Hmhm~" she left with a giggle. I can't believe she's my closest relative; she's nothing like me.

**Northern Tokyo Train Station, 15:15**

"Here you go, Tae," Tokiko came back with two packs of takoyaki and handed one to me.

"Thanks," it's been awhile since I ate takoyaki. I almost never have time to buy these on a school day since I have to catch the train and Tokiko always sleeps in.

"This is good. Maybe we should eat this for breakfast on schooldays," Tokiko suggested.

"This isn't enough to start of the day with; besides, the takoyaki stand doesn't open till ten in the morning."

"Too bad," we got here early and Tokiko said she was a little hungry. I was saving my appetite for the restaurant we're going to, but takoyaki doesn't fill me up too much so I got one too. Right now we're waiting for Yuki to show up.

"What's taking your girlfriend so long?" Tokiko blurted out.

"She's not my girlfriend. We agreed to meet here at 15:30; its still 15:20 so, chill."

"I hate waiting," she said as she put an entire piece of takoyaki into her mouth.

I examined my sister from head to toe. At home, she usually wears a tank top that's almost twice her actual size and girl shorts. Now she's wearing a very athletic looking outfit consisting of the same tank top she was wearing earlier with a half-zipped up white jacket patterned with a blue stripe and short cargo pants. She also has her shoulder length chestnut hair tied into a ponytail with strands of hair hanging from both sides of her face. She actually looks pretty good.

"What're ya lookin at?" she said while biting a piece of takoyaki "Don't tell me you're falling for your elder sister."

"Would you stop it with those tasteless jokes!" she giggles and goes back to her takoyaki. Jokes aside, now that I look at her, she's a really cute girl. I'm surprised she doesn't have a boyfriend yet.

As for me, I was wearing a grey shirt with the collar up and jeans. I also have my white hair in its usual style. If you're wondering why I have white hair while my sister has brown, her chestnut hair is a combination of our parents dark brown and white hair while mine comes completely from my mother. My mom says it's really nice to have white hair, since when you get older; it's hard to tell the grey hairs from the white.

"Tae-tae! Kiko-nee!" I heard someone shout. My sister, conveniently done with her snack, looks up.

"It's Yuki!" she says. We both stood up as Yuki approached.

"I'm sorry we kept you waiting," she said while switching views from Tokiko to me.

"It's… no trouble," I reassured her. I was blushing. Yuki was in a fashionable top that reveals her shoulders with a skirt and leggings. She didn't do anything to her long blue hair, but it looks good anyway. I think I was spacing out; Yuki had a confused look on her face.

"What's wrong, Tae-tae?" she said as she tilted her head. Damn, that's too cute! I blushed and looked away.

"I-it's nothing… you look good in that, Yuki…" I said as I scratched my right lower cheek.

"T-thanks…" I think she was blushing too cuz her voice was flustered.

"Aww… Yuki-chan, you've grown up so much. Especially over here," at this point I turned my head back towards Yuki, and then I saw Tokiko tapping Yuki's chest. I blushed even more now.

"Ah! Don't do that, Kiko-nee!" she blushed even more than I did. She quickly raised her arms to cover her torso and turned away.

"Well… there's still some time till our train gets here, do you want some takoyaki, Yuki?" I offered her.

"Oh, sure," she got her usual cheery expression back and nodded.

"I'll go get you a pack," then I ran towards the takoyaki stand.

**While Taeke is away**

I reached into my purse to get my wallet. When I looked up, Tae-tae was gone.

"Where did Tae-tae go?" I said with a comical face.

"He went to get your takoyaki," Kiko-nee responded. Whaaaat!

"But I haven't given him the money to buy them!"

"Don't worry, he has money,"

"B-but…"

"Would you stop worrying? I'm sure he was planning on treating you anyway, c'mon; let's sit down," Kiko-nee sat down on the bench around a pillar and tapped the space next to her. I sat down.

"So, how've ya been this spring break? How was your birthday?" she asked.

"I've been doing really well, Tae-tae came over on my birthday and even got me Pom-bomb's sixth CD!"

"The sixth! But I it's not even released yet!"

"Tae-tae managed to get his hands on one, just for my birthday too!" I was really overjoyed talking about the memories. I even rested my head on my hands and kicked the air while saying it. Kiko-nee then smiled. She leaned back, folded her arms, and crossed her legs.

"You like Taeke, don't you?" I jumped in my seat.

"Hah!" that was really sudden! "Well… of course I like him; we've been friends ever since we were little kid, haven't we?"

"You know that wasn't what I meant," at this point, I was practically choking. I noticed someone walking towards us.

**Meanwhile**

"One pack please. Medium," I said to the stand worker.

"Coming right up," the worker then went to the grills to get my order. I leaned towards the counter while waiting. Someone wearing a fisherman's hat walked towards the counter space next to me.

"One small, please," he ordered.

"Just a minute," the clerk said. The person next to me was standing up straight, unlike me.

"Glad to see that you're keeping your word," I looked at him. He was faintly familiar, but since I remember recently meeting only one guy, I knew who it was.

"Kenji Daisuke?" I asked.

"You know it," he said with a smile and while slightly raising the brim of his hat. I know that I only just met him, but there was an atmosphere around him that says "I'm a friendly senpai!"

"Don't you have other things you want to do on your time off, senpai?" I said.

"Of course I do, but what sensei wants, sensei gets," he said while raising his shoulders.

"Sounds like she can be a real pain,"

"You know it! Misaki isn't such an angel either; she's so scary I even take orders from her, a senior taking orders form a freshman!"

"I've noticed," I said with a slight grin. I've never had this kind of conversation before. A genuine guy to guy talk… it also kinda feels like talking to an older brother.

"Here you are boys. A medium for you, snow head, and a small is your choice, right, fisherman?" …. snow head…? "That'll be 300 yen for the medium and 200 yen for the small," Daisuke-senpai and I both reached into our pockets to get our wallets. I was still searching my wallet for a 300 yen when senpai put 500 yen on the counter. I looked at him.

"I'm paying for your pack, don't worry, as a senpai it's the least I could do," he smiles and walks away. I took out three 100 yen coins out of my wallet.

"Senpai!" I called him before he got too far away and threw the coins towards him. He caught them all with one swipe of his hand "No need to pay for it; this isn't for me anyway, thanks for the offer though!" he smiled and nodded, then walked away. He's a really good guy. I guess I wouldn't mind working with him.

… I haven't given it much thought, whether I'll join the league or not, I'm not sure whether I'm cut out for this kind of thing. I know that Ms. Kano didn't give me a specific deadline, but I guess she'll be asking me for an answer when school starts again.

I was about to walk back to Yuki and sis when the clerk stopped me.

"Snow head, you mind giving this to fisherman?" I turned back and saw him handing me some kind of coin "It looks like he mistook it for money, you mind giving it back to him? You seem to be a friend of his," I took the coin. When I got a better look at it, I discovered that it wasn't a coin. It was some kind of pin. I looked at the pattern on the surface. It was a letter… S… and a number… two. S2? I was pondering what it is and then I realized, an S2 Badge!

"Uh… yeah, I'll make sure he gets it back," I told the clerk.

"Ok, good. Come again, Yukitou!" now he's made up a nickname for me… yukitou means "Snow head" by the way. I put the badge into my pocket as I walked back towards Yuki and sis.

"Ok, Yuki, I got you a medium, I hope it's alright," I said as I reached them. I noticed the weird speechless face Yuki has on.

"Yuki?" I lowered myself to get a better look at her. I guess that snapped her out of it.

"O-oh, Tae-tae… you got the takoyaki?"

"Yeah, here…" she grabbed the pack and stood up. She ate the grilled octopus very nervous like.

"You okay?" I asked

"What? Yeah, of course, never better! Uh…uhm… look! Our train's here! Let's get on!" she said it very quickly and with a nervous smile. She walked ahead of us towards the waiting line for the train.

"Whatsup with her?" I asked Tokiko.

"Oh… who knows~?" she said with a playful tone "We shouldn't leave her alone, come on, lets go,"

**Monorail Train, 15:45**

I was standing up and trying to control the shockwaves of the monorail. There was only enough room on the seats for two of us; naturally I offered to be the one standing up.

I held onto the handle as the monorail rumbles and shakes. I was still pondering on something; whether to join the league or not. I want to find out what happened that night, I also want to protect the people I care about, but… what if I'm not strong enough? What if I end up having people depending on me and then I let them down? I don't want that to happen. I pat the pocket that has the S2 Badge in it. Why did Daisuke-senpai give this to me? Maybe it was honestly just a mistake and he left it there by accident? These questions ringing in my head without an answer, then… I remember I have another question. I looked at Yuki.

"Yuki," I said.

"Y-yes?" I think she was thinking about her own stuff cuz she was eating her takoyaki while keeping her head down.

"Do you remember what happened on the day of the school incident?"

"Uhm… no, now that you mention it," … why did she have to had her memory erased? The feeling of someone forgetting time with you… it's somewhat disturbing.

"Déjà vu! He asked me the same thing yesterday! Even though it was about the day before the incident," Tokiko added.

"Oh really? That's so weird," Yuki commented.

"REALLY weird…" Tokiko gave me a disturbing glance "You didn't do… anything serious during those days, did you?"

"No, I was just wondering," then I returned to my own thoughts. I noticed Tokiko grumble. I really need to think about this hard, but there's really no need to think about it now. I'm going out to have fun with my sister and childhood friend, I should at least put on a smile as to now ruin their fun. I looked at them without moving my head, their both smiling, looks like they're having a fun conversation.

**While Taeke is in his thoughts**

"… and then I went on the rollercoaster and threw up twice from the same ride!" I was having a good time, even though we haven't actually done what we're planning, talking to this girl is really fun; I can see why Taeke kept being friends with her for ten years.

"I hope you threw up AFTER you got off,"

"Well… I would say that I did, but then I would be half lying," she said as she scratched he cheek. This girl is so cute! She even considers me to be her own sister. Ah the warmth I feel inside my heart when she calls me "Kiko-nee". I wish Taeke would call me that, but I guess it doesn't fit his personality anyway.

While Yuki was resting from laughing so hard, I looked at Taeke. What in the world does Yuki see in him? Is it his looks? I guess he's so-so. Is it his charm? Yeah right. Is it his… nah, this girl isn't the one that would be interested in that stuff. Well, she's his childhood friend anyway, I'm sure she sees something that I don't.

Ever since the incident two days ago, Taeke's been acting weird. He doesn't seem to be his usual self. How can I describe it? Call it… sister's intuition. I just can feel this kind of stuff.

*sigh*… I need something to pass time some time with. Guess I'll just poke some fun out of my little brother and "sister".

"Hey, Tae,"

"Hm? What is it, sis?"

"Why so quiet? Yuki's feeling a little lonely y'know,"

"H-huh! No I'm not, Kiko-nee!" there it is; the reaction of the cute little sister I love so much.

"Is it true, Yuki?" he asked.

"U-uh-uhm…"

"Y'know, if you want to talk with me, I don't mind," hello? What's this? I raised an eyebrow with intrigue.

"R-really?" I saw her eyelids open wide and she showed such a cute little smile.

"We didn't really get a chance to talk to each other recently anyway, we have a lot of catching up to do, do we?" my brother said as he showed a rare smile. How sweet. I could see how happy Yuki was to hear that. Now that I think about it, that's one of his undeniable traits; my brother has a heart of gold, no matter how he looks or acts, he really is a nice person.

As those two talk their time away, all I can do is smile and look out the window. We're almost at the next station.

**Central Tokyo Mall, Food Court**

"That'll be 2000 yen please," the cashier confirmed. I reached into my pocket and took out my wallet. I picked out two 1000 yen bills and handed them to the cashier. When I put my wallet back into my pocket, I touched the S2 Badge. I took it out and stared at the green badge as the slightly dull S2 insignia reflected the light. I've been thinking too much. I thought about the league all the while on the train, while we walked here from the station, and even right now! I gotta remember that I don't have to decide right now! All I have to think about is having fun with Yuki and my sister.

"Thank you, please come again," I nodded slightly and took the tray over to our table.

"About time," Tokiko commented.

"It was a long line. Tokiko, you ordered pack A, right?"

"Yeah," I handed that to her.

"So, the E pack goes to Yuki, and I get the C pack goes to me," I gave Yuki her platter, took mine and put the tray on the middle of the table. I sat down next to Yuki.

"Thank you for the food!" we all said in unison. We were eating bento boxes from Bento Barn. Crappy name, I know, but their food isn't bad.

"What're we gonna do after this? Wanna go do some shopping?" Tokiko suggested.

"Shopping? I don't think it'll be fair for Tae-tae," I was touched that Yuki considered my feelings.

"It's alright, shopping is fine. I'm game for anything," I said as I put a piece of yakiniku into my mouth.

"Okay then, shopping it is! Y'know though, Tae, it's alright if you wanna do something else though," as she said this, Tokiko was pointing at me with her chopsticks as if accusing me of something.

"No, I don't have anything I want to do, really," I assured her. They seemed to have gotten the idea, so they went back to their bentos. Over the meal, we talked about lots of things. We did some catching up on things and discussed some other things. I think I'm finally starting to forget about the league and having fun now. Then there was an explosion.

"What was that!" Tokiko screamed. So much for that…

*looks up* hey there… *goes back to sleep*


End file.
